This I Believe

I believe that everything, EVERYTHING happens for a reason. Yeah, so I know I’m not the first person that you’ve ever heard say that, but I might be the first person to tell you that, at the time, no one thought I was actually supposed to be here. I was what some would call an ‘accident’. And although we won’t go into details, it’s true, I was. But now after 15 years, no one that knows me would say that my mom just happened to get pregnant one night and ended up with just another mouth to feed, another burden on her hands.

At times when I was younger, I chose to believe that I was an accident, I was looked at as a burden, something to spend all of my mother’s time and energy, something that she was stuck with. But over time as I have grown, matured, and transformed into the young woman I am today I can see that it was never like that. I am here for a reason. Things worked out the way they did for a reason. Everything fell into place the way it did for a reason. And now I’m here. Some would never guess that my family has a story like this behind it, but we do.

Think of what would’ve happened if I were an aborted baby, because I very well could be. My mother never considered it, but many in her situation do. I’m only 15, so I don’t know the impact that I will be making on the world, but I do know that it could’ve been none at all. I could’ve ceased to exist ever, and maybe the world would’ve been a darker place because of that.

Sometimes you find yourself in circumstances where you can’t find anything good about the situation at all, and at the time, maybe there’s not anything good about it. But if you look back on those times you can see exactly how you grew from that experience. Maybe you met some amazing people through your struggles. Maybe you found out you were better off without that guy that dumped you, and maybe you ended up with a beautiful baby that would turn out to be nothing more than a blessing. Bad things happen to good people. It’s just a fact of life. But the point is, maybe that bad thing is actually a good thing that you never saw coming. Next time you find yourself in despair over a hopeless situation find comfort in the fact that someday you just might see the point of all of it, and it did in fact happen for a reason.

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Top 100 Essays USB Drive

This USB drive contains 100 of the top This I Believe audio broadcasts of the last ten years, plus some favorites from Edward R. Murrow's radio series of the 1950s. It's perfect for personal or classroom use! Click here to learn more.

This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.